The City of God, Book VIII

Book VIII

• The City of God VIII.1 — That the Question of Natural Theology is to Be Discussed with Those Philosophers Who Sought a More Excellent Wisdom. Chapter 1.—That the Question of Natural Theology is to Be Discussed with Those Philosophers Who…vatican.va
• The City of God VIII.2 — Concerning the Two Schools of Philosophers, that Is, the Italic and Ionic, and Their Founders. Chapter 2.—Concerning the Two Schools of Philosophers, that Is, the Italic and Ionic, and Their Founders. As far as…vatican.va
• The City of God VIII.3 — Of the Socratic Philosophy. Socrates is said to have been the first who directed the entire effort of philosophy to the correction and regulation of manners, all who went before him having expended their greatest…vatican.va
• The City of God VIII.4 — Concerning Plato, the Chief Among the Disciples of Socrates, and His Threefold Division of Philosophy. Chapter 4.—Concerning Plato, the Chief Among the Disciples of Socrates, and His Threefold Division of Philosophy.…vatican.va
• The City of God VIII.5 — Chapter 5.—That It is Especially with the Platonists that We Must Carry on Our Disputations on Matters of Theology, Their Opinions Being Preferable to Those of All Other Philosophers. If, then, Plato defined the wise…vatican.va
• The City of God VIII.6 — Concerning the Meaning of the Platonists in that Part of Philosophy Called Physical. Chapter 6.—Concerning the Meaning of the Platonists in that Part of Philosophy Called Physical. These philosophers, then, whom we…vatican.va
• The City of God VIII.7 — How Much the Platonists are to Be Held as Excelling Other Philosophers in Logic, i.e. Rational Philosophy. Chapter 7.—How Much the Platonists are to Be Held as Excelling Other Philosophers in Logic, i.e. Rational…vatican.va
• The City of God VIII.8 — That the Platonists Hold the First Rank in Moral Philosophy Also. The remaining part of philosophy is morals, or what is called by the Greeks ἠθική, in which is discussed the question concerning the chief good,—that…vatican.va
• The City of God VIII.9 — Concerning that Philosophy Which Has Come Nearest to the Christian Faith. Whatever philosophers, therefore, thought concerning the supreme God, that He is both the maker of all created things, the light by which…vatican.va
• The City of God VIII.10 — That the Excellency of the Christian Religion is Above All the Science of Philosophers. Chapter 10.—That the Excellency of the Christian Religion is Above All the Science of Philosophers. For although a Christian man…vatican.va
• The City of God VIII.11 — How Plato Has Been Able to Approach So Nearly to Christian Knowledge. Certain partakers with us in the grace of Christ, wonder when they hear and read that Plato had conceptions concerning God, in which they…vatican.va
• The City of God VIII.12 — Chapter 12.—That Even the Platonists, Though They Say These Things Concerning the One True God, Nevertheless Thought that Sacred Rites Were to Be Performed in Honor of Many Gods. But we need not determine from what…vatican.va
• The City of God VIII.13 — Concerning the Opinion of Plato, According to Which He Defined the Gods as Beings Entirely Good and the Friends of Virtue. Chapter 13.—Concerning the Opinion of Plato, According to Which He Defined the Gods as Beings…vatican.va
• The City of God VIII.14 — Chapter 14.—Of the Opinion of Those Who Have Said that Rational Souls are of Three Kinds, to Wit, Those of the Celestial Gods, Those of the Aerial Demons, and Those of Terrestrial Men. There is, say they, a threefold…vatican.va
• The City of God VIII.15 — That the Demons are Not Better Than Men Because of Their Aerial Bodies, or on Account of Their Superior Place of Abode. Chapter 15.—That the Demons are Not Better Than Men Because of Their Aerial Bodies, or on…vatican.va
• The City of God VIII.16 — What Apuleius the Platonist Thought Concerning the Manners and Actions of Demons. Chapter 16.—What Apuleius the Platonist Thought Concerning the Manners and Actions of Demons. The same Apuleius, when speaking…vatican.va
• The City of God VIII.17 — Whether It is Proper that Men Should Worship Those Spirits from Whose Vices It is Necessary that They Be Freed. Chapter 17.—Whether It is Proper that Men Should Worship Those Spirits from Whose Vices It is Necessary…vatican.va
• The City of God VIII.18 — Chapter 18.—What Kind of Religion that is Which Teaches that Men Ought to Employ the Advocacy of Demons in Order to Be Recommended to the Favor of the Good Gods. In vain, therefore, have Apuleius, and they who think…vatican.va
• The City of God VIII.19 — Of the Impiety of the Magic Art, Which is Dependent on the Assistance of Malign Spirits. Chapter 19.—Of the Impiety of the Magic Art, Which is Dependent on the Assistance of Malign Spirits. Moreover, against those…vatican.va
• The City of God VIII.20 — Whether We are to Believe that the Good Gods are More Willing to Have Intercourse with Demons Than with Men. Chapter 20.—Whether We are to Believe that the Good Gods are More Willing to Have Intercourse with Demons…vatican.va
• The City of God VIII.21 — Chapter 21.—Whether the Gods Use the Demons as Messengers and Interpreters, and Whether They are Deceived by Them Willingly, or Without Their Own Knowledge. But herein, no doubt, lies the great necessity for this…vatican.va
• The City of God VIII.22 — That We Must, Notwithstanding the Opinion of Apuleius, Reject the Worship of Demons. Chapter 22.—That We Must, Notwithstanding the Opinion of Apuleius, Reject the Worship of Demons. None of these four alternatives,…vatican.va
• The City of God VIII.23 — What Hermes Trismegistus Thought Concerning Idolatry, and from What Source He Knew that the Superstitions of Egypt Were to Be Abolished. Chapter 23.—What Hermes Trismegistus Thought Concerning Idolatry, and from What…vatican.va
• The City of God VIII.24 — How Hermes Openly Confessed the Error of His Forefathers, the Coming Destruction of Which He Nevertheless Bewailed. Chapter 24.—How Hermes Openly Confessed the Error of His Forefathers, the Coming Destruction of…vatican.va
• The City of God VIII.25 — Concerning Those Things Which May Be Common to the Holy Angels and to Men. Wherefore we must by no means seek, through the supposed mediation of demons, to avail ourselves of the benevolence or beneficence of the…vatican.va
• The City of God VIII.26 — That All the Religion of the Pagans Has Reference to Dead Men. It is certainly a remarkable thing how this Egyptian, when expressing his grief that a time was coming when those things would be taken away from Egypt,…vatican.va
• The City of God VIII.27 — Concerning the Nature of the Honor Which the Christians Pay to Their Martyrs. But, nevertheless, we do not build temples, and ordain priests, rites, and sacrifices for these same martyrs; for they are not our gods,…vatican.va